Ngraham....you said you "like the shorter height & winding tendancies." Do you mean it's NORMAL for it to wind around like it's doing? And when I say wind, I mean the very bottom looks like a snake in the grass....lol. If this is the case, then I'll just stake it up somehow, because I'd hate to waste all the buds on it now. I know the Cloth of Gold I had before did this very same thing at the base, but thought it was from being behind other plants and straining to get to the sun. Laceyvail, you say it's weak & weedy-looking. Do you mean the foliage is weak, because mine came in very lush & fernlike looking. And a darker green tham the Cloth of Gold I had before. I DID think THAT looked weedy and yanked it all out. But thought I'd try a red this year. Thanks to both for your help !!

No! No! No! It's not done by squirrels or rabbits or groundhogs. It's a weevil (the "Sunflower Head-Clipping Weevil). I removed the one below from my purple coneflower and brought it in the house for a picture. I also killed 20 of his friends. What you have to do is walk around your garden and when you see a flower deadheaded 2 inches from the top, put your hand (or cup) underneath the flower and squeeze. These weevils will fall out into your hand or cup, and you can kill them with prejudice. They don't bite. :) You will also see them on top of the flowers and sometimes crawling up the stem. I've manually removed them every few days, and the problem is mostly resolved. I also found more details just now at: https://bygl.osu.edu/node/816 Good luck!

Does it look like animal damage and not pests? I would suspect deer even though there is plenty for them to eat elsewhere. All my sunflowers were "pruned down to 4 ft; the tomatoes were chewed off at the top, and they even chewed on the rhubarb! I lost all my peaches to them and they have damaged some of the peach branches. I have to assume deer given the heighth but maybe it's bigfoot.

I am definitely experiencing that same thing with my hollyhocks. Did you ever find a solution and did you identify pack rats?